12 hours ago, RobJC said:

Because none of our ways are better. But seeing how each of us do it is interesting! 

This is the mark of a robust platform that can satisfy a variety of needs and wishes and this thread demonstrates that very well!  I forgot to mention A Pilot's Life has been the structure I needed to systematically take me all over the world by flying for different airlines.  I change airlines about once every 3 weeks or so which gets me very familiar with a bunch of their actual routes and then move on to another part of the world.  Flying for Air New Zealand now and prior to that Japan Air.  One selects combinations of short/medium/long flights and schedules are created and user-approved before active so whatever is next up is where I will be next time up.  I will probably apply to Aeromexico or Latam next.  

How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Fancy Addons And Fly In 10 Easy Steps

1- Select an aircraft

2- Spin a globe real fast and throw a dart when it stops spinning

3- Water ? Go to 2

4- Weather : can I fly VFR ? No, go to 2

5- Search nearest airport from where the dart landed

6- Search a second airport in a less than an one-hour radius (more if longer attention span)

7- None ? Change aircraft. Still none with any aircraft ? Go to 2

8- Slant Google Earth and wonder : is it glamorous or dangerous enough ? No, go to 6

9- Go the world planner, enter the airports, choose a parking slot at Departure

10- Enter the sim, start the engine and fly (from the runway, not the parking spot)

This is my current flight configuration in P3Dv4.5HF2, which I am enjoying a lot. All AI planes have been disabled to provide an obstacle free airspace and airport environment, and to reduce the number of large stutters during my flights. These flights are conducted at dawn or dusk because the ambience at those times is vastly superior to that in broad daylight (with REX4 Texture Direct installed).

1. Load the PMDG 737-600NGX from a base save configuration.

2. Select and load the required airport.

3. Set up a very basic pattern flightplan in the FMC.

4. Select EMPTY aircraft and TWO THIRDS fuel.

5. Start my very short (around 12 minutes) flight from the runway threshold.

6. Fly the pattern in Autopilot mode to allow maximum enjoyment of the ORBx TrueEarth scenery.

7. Disengage autopilot and autothrottle at 1000 feet for a manual landing.

8. Engage thrust reversers on touchdown.

9. Disengage thrust reversers at 75 knots and apply brakes.

10. Roll to a stop on the runway.

11. Repeat the above process for the next airport on my list (the list currently stands at 94 airports and airfields; 93 of those are in the UK).

Edited March 1, 20233 yr by Christopher Low

9 hours ago, TomCYYZ said:

FedEx, No, but,

Thank you. This is very helpful.

1. Look at Windy.com to see if there is any interesting weather near airports where a 737's operate, and I have good scenery for. Just looking at radar and satellite. 

2. Once I have an origin, I go to FlightsFrom to find a plausible destination where the weather is interesting, the airline I want to fly services and the flight time works with my schedule. Also, I go back to Windy and make sure the wind direction at both the origin and destination requires interesting departures and approaches. I use metar-taf.com to verify runways in use (love that site).

3. Once I have the origin and destination, I go to Simbrief, create the flight, import the download the FMS data for PMDG on my sim computer, and load the plan into Navigraph. Simbrief, Navigraph, and metar-taf run on a different computer that is next to my sim rig - king of like an EFB.

4. Restart my sim rig, load MSFS.

5. Pick my aircraft/livery, departure airport/gate and click fly now.

6. Once in the aircraft (almost always the PMDG 737), I load either a custom daytime or a nighttime panel state. They both roughly emulate a long turnaround with GPU and battery on. The main difference is the lighting.

7. I connect the jetway through GSX

8. I start AI with either FSLTL or AIG (not sure the best way to go these days. I use AIG aircraft, though)

9. I enter the fuel and payload from Simbiref.

10. I align IRS and set position, load flight plan, takeoff, CI... get the aircraft ready for departure.

11. Detach jetway and pushback with GSX.

12. Start engines, set flaps and head out.

13. I usually stay with the sim until cruise. At ToC, I check the time for ToD and set a timer for 15 mins before ToD.

14. Turn off my LG C1 OLED (don't want burn in), and do something else until timer goes off. If the flight time is <1hr or so, I'll stay with the sim.

I don't use ATC right now, because It doesn't work for me. I wish the speech was faster and I also wish it worked better with AI, and that AI worked better.

The biggest workload is trying to find a city pair that works for me. On occasion, I can't find anything inspiring and I just give up.